Many organic chip carriers are designed to attach the semiconductor die to copper die bond pads or heat spreaders or stiffeners (all three being the same element and hereinafter referred to as the die bond pad) using organic adhesives. The copper die bond pad typically requires passivation, however, to prevent changes in the oxidation of the copper during processing prior to the die bond operation. Typically, the die bond pad is passivated by plating it with a noble metal such as gold. However, most known die bond adhesives demonstrate poor adhesion to gold. This can result in die bond failures during assembly, testing, and end use.
Consequently, a process for making and a resulting semiconductor package with a significant increase in die adhesion to the copper substrate of die bond pads, thus eliminating failures during assembly, testing and end use, would be desirous in the industry.